Monday, 17 April 2017

TaeYeon - My Voice

My Voice is TaeYeon's 1st full length album, on the 14th of February this year (2017), SM Entertainment announced that TaeYeon would be making a solo comeback with her 1st full length album at the end of February. The next day on the 15th SM Entertainment started teasing for the album with an M/V teaser for TaeYeon's pre-release track I Got Love.

On the 20th of February SM Entertainment revealed that TaeYeon's 1st full length album would be titled My Voice and the lead single would be titled Fine, on the same day album teasers started being released, starting with My Voice Highlight Clip #1 - 수채화 (Love in Color).

The digital version of my Voice contains 12 songs while the physical copy has 13 tracks with the 13th track being a bonus track titled 기억을 걷는 시간 (Time Spent Walking Through Memories) originally by South Korean indie rock band Neil.

Prior to it's release the albums pre-order sales exceeded 114,000 copies, which set the record for a female soloist in terms of highest pre-order album sales. My Voice was the 3rd best-selling album of February 2017 in South Korea, promotions for the album began on the 3rd of March on music show Music Bank with Fine winning 2 music show awards through M Countdown and Music Bank.

My Voice peaked at No.1 on the Gaon Weekly Albums Chart, No.39 on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart, No.19 on the Billboard Heeatseekers Albums Chart and No.2 on the Billboard World Albums Chart, My Voice also peaked at No.3 on the Gaon Monthly Albums Chart, missing out on the top 2 spots to Twice's - Twicecoaster Lane 2 and BTS' - You Never Walk Alone.

Gaon Sales:

142,894+

Oricon Sales:

5,605+

Totalling 148,499+ copies sold.

On March 29th SM Entertainment announced that a deluxe edition was to be released on the 5th of April, containing 4 extra tracks, including 3 brand new tracks: I Blame You, Curtain Call and new title track Make Me Love You, her previous digital single 11:11 was to be the 4th track added to the track list. It's also been announced to further promote the album, TaeYeon will embark on a solo tour called Persona, starting on May 12th in South Korea and stopping off in Hong Kong, Taipei and Bangkok.

The M/V for Fine has accumulated 15,468,846 million views, with the view increasing each day and even each hour, while the M/V for pre-release track I Got Love has 12,706,268 million views.

My Voice was released in 2 versions, a Fine version and a I Got Love version, both versions have a completely different booklets as well as album covers and CD designs. Both versions are set out as a book style case with the CD at the front and when placed on one another the spine reads out My Voice, TaeYeon, 1. Both versions also have fabric style covers, with the pages also being different in both versions, with the Fine version being a matte style page and the I Got Love version being more glossy.

Track List:

Fine

Cover Up

날개 (Feel So Fine)

I Got Love

I'm OK

Time Lapse

Sweet Love

When I Was Young

Lonely Night

수채화 (Love in Color)

Fire

Eraser

기억을 걷는 시간 (Time Spent Walking Through Memories(CD only))

As you can tell I have both version, my favourite version is the I Got Love version so if I had to help someone choose which version they should get I would say the I Got Love version if you can't afford both, but I guess it depends on your preference of TaeYeon, where there are obviously stunning pictures of her in the Fine version, I think it's a side of her that SM always shows where as the I Got Love version is showing a side that she's never really portrayed and I love that side of TaeYeon. My only disappointment for this album is her name isn't listed on any of the tracks which would have made me love the album that much more but knowing that she'll have picked what songs she wanted to place on the album lessens that disappointment. TaeYeon to me is the type of singer that no matter the genre of song she can pull it off as to me she has a very versatile voice. Many fans weren't too impressed with I Got Love but for me I think it's the best song and my most favourite song of hers, to me it sounds like it would be a perfect fit for the Fifty Shades soundtracks. TaeYeon said she found it physically and mentally demanding when she was recording Fine, showing how much pressure she was under, I think it's obvious that when it comes to her music TaeYeon is a perfectionist and even though she has many fans and other idols that look up to her and admire her, she has quite a lot of haters too. There is a part in the Fine M/V where the director yells cut as she seems to break down, many fans think this wasn't scripted and was left in purposely, I personally am one of those fans that think it was real and is TaeYeon letting her cracks show to not only her fans but to her haters too, reminding them that she may be an idol but she's still human. I fell in love with this album on the first listen but it's impossible not to, if I could wake up tomorrow with someones vocal talent it would be TaeYeon's, I found it really difficult to pick only a few songs, so I will be doing a My Voice Deluxe Edition post once I have it to share the rest of these amazing songs. I think this album proves that TaeYeon still has a long career ahead of her in Girls Generation and as a soloist and I can't wait to see what else is to come from her.

I'm yet to order the Deluxe Edition as for me March was an expensive month for K-pop with GOT7, MONSTA X, GFriend, NCT Dream, TaeYeon and B.A.P having new releases out, which all apart from NCT Dream have more than 1 version of their albums released (GOT7 2 versions, MONSTA X 3 versions, GFriend 2 versions, TaeYeon 2 versions & B.A.P 2 versions), I'm waiting on both of my B.A.P versions to arrive, one of which is signed by all 6 members. The Deluxe Edition also has 2 versions, so I will obviously buy both versions again. One thing I love about TaeYeon is you don't have to understand Korean to understand the message and emotion she's trying to get across, before even seeing the translated lyrics for Love in Color, she had me in tears with the emotion in her voice. If your a fan of vocalists like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey etc, then I really recommend listening to TaeYeon and hopefully the songs I've chose will help you become a fan.